In facing the situation we should remember that
cotton is not merely a sectional crop confined to the
South, but is a national and international commodity.
It is grown in America and in at least twelve foreign
countries.

Last year the United States produced 13,753,000
bales, and foreign countries produced 11,724,000 bales.

Shall the South grow no cotton in 1932, and the
foreign countries reap a harvest? This is a most
important question. We must remember that the United States government has already recognized and
undertaken to meet the problem of cotton through the
means of its own creation--the Farm Board, an agency
of government set up by President Hoover to contend
with the identical problem today confronting cotton.

If the cotton problem is international rather than
sectional, it is my judgment that, before any governor
calls a special session of the legislature, and as a condition precedent thereto, the President should call
Congress into immediate session and lay before the
states and foreign countries which grow cotton the
absolute necessity for unified action and control.

Not only the South, but America faces a major
calamity unless something is done to develop cotton
consciousness in the world. The movements should be
begun by the President and Congress, and should begin
now, before it is too late, before cotton passes from the
hands of the farmer. If we wait until December when
Congress convenes in regular session, the tragedy will
already have been enacted.

Nothing is more unsound than state legislation compelling abandonment of cotton growing in the South
without some binding agreement with foreign growers.

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